For the past few weeks, Saudi Arabia has made it almost impossible to get food to Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world. Yemen became an independent state in 1990, after gaining its sovereignty from The United Kingdom. The population of Yemen is 24,771,809 (2012). Yemen shares land borders with 2 countries: Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Yemen has been tiptoeing toward famine for the better part of three years. It's a man-made crisis born of immense political instability. (The country has been divided into pieces by warring factions backed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda control portions of land, too.) And it has been made worse by climate change, rendering a dry and arid country nearly devoid of usable land and clean water.
Eighty percent of the country's population lacks reliable access to food. (That includes around 11 million children; kids under 18 make up around half of the population.) Seven million people, one out of every four Yemenis, are entirely dependent on food assistance. The United Nations has called it the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”
Save the Children predicts that 50,000 Yemeni children under 5 will die by year end. That's a toddler dead every 10 minutes.
Yemen is on the brink of a horrible famine. Here’s how things got so bad.
For years, Saudi Arabia has played a dark role in Yemen's suffering. It backs the country's exiled government and has dropped thousands of bombs on military and civilian targets (including schools and hospitals) controlled by the Houthi rebels. (The United States has provided funding, logistical support and arms for this effort.) Nearly 10,000 Yemenis have been killed in the bombings.
In early November, things got worse. After the Houthis launched a missile into Saudi Arabia, the country retaliated with a near-total blockade of Yemen's seaports, airports and highways. This meant that aid groups could not ship in clean water, vital medication and food. Yemen imports at least 80 percent of its food, and the blockade pushed those 7 million people dependent on food assistance to the brink of famine.
Humanitarian groups condemned Saudi Arabia's action as inhumane. “I don't think there's any question the Saudi-led coalition, along with the Houthis and all of those involved, are using food as a weapon of war,” David Beasley, head of the United Nations' World Food Program, told CBS. “It's disgraceful.”
Finally, it seemed, there was a drop of good news. Last week, Saudi Arabia announced that it would partially lift its blockade, reopening airports and seaports controlled by its allies. Today, the Saudi-led coalition said it would allow aid deliveries to the rebel-held port of Hodeidah and Sanaa airport. That decision was set to kick in at noon Thursday. Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, wrote on Twitter that it was a “glimmer of hope.”
But aid groups say this new move, on its own, will do little to stem the impending crisis.
That's because aid groups alone simply can't get enough food, water and medicine into Yemen fast enough to feed and help the millions of people who need it. To stem a famine, USAID says, Yemen needs “large-scale imports of essential goods.” That means commercial shipments, not just supplies from the United Nations, which must go through rigorous inspections that slow delivery.
Yemenis need fuel, too, to power the water pumps that clean the country's water. Without it, diseases are spreading rapidly. Right now, the country is experiencing the worst cholera outbreak in history. Nearly 1 million people have been infected.
In a statement, International Rescue Committee Yemen country director Paolo Cernuschi explained that Saudi Arabia's latest effort isn't nearly enough.
“Even though tomorrow's reopening of ports to humanitarian traffic will ease the flow of aid, it will still leave the population of Yemen in a worse situation than they were two weeks ago before the blockade started,” he said. “Humanitarian aid alone cannot meet the needs of Yemenis who are unjustly bearing the brunt of this war. Access by commercial shipments of food and fuel must be resumed immediately, otherwise this action will do little to turn Yemen back from the brink of famine and crisis.”
The international community has also called on the United States to do more to end the Saudi blockade. But so far, the Trump administration has declined to publicly condemn the country's actions.
For a video overview of Yemen and its needs visit: http://prayercast.com/yemen.html
We are focusing a special spotlight this month on the very needy Middle East country of Yemen. We would encourage our prayer partners to join with us as we intercede for the complex situation there.
Yemen, the birthplace of algebra, has a long history of trade in frankincense and myrrh and now makes most of its revenue exporting oil products. Yet it is sadly the poorest Arab nation and is currently facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Decades of war and unrest have torn this nation apart, leaving it crippled by long-standing social, political, and economic instability.
Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence and suffering caused by the unravelling turmoil of civil war since 2012. This has left 80% of the population in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Yemen’s hunger crisis is one of the worst in the world. Yemeni’s have also endured the devastation of widespread diseases such as cholera. With only 45% of hospitals functional, medications in short supply, and little to no clean drinking water, diseases that should be preventable and treatable have claimed the lives of thousands. The nation’s immense water shortage has only been made worse by the widespread use of the country’s most popular narcotic, qat, which demands approximately 40% of the nation’s supply. Terrorist and militant groups like Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, and the Houthis have taken advantage of the chaos and human suffering to gain territory and momentum.
- Pray for peace and for terrorist and militant groups to be disarmed.
- Pray for sufficient famine relief and medical aid to access all areas of the population in need.
- Pray for the Gospel to go forth in power despite current legal restrictions.
- Pray for freedom from the narcotic 'qat' that holds 80% of Yemeni adult’s captive.
- Pray for the desperate economic situation to ignite a longing for lasting hope and security.
For a video overview of Yemen and its needs visit: http://prayercast.com/yemen.html
In May, the IPC convened an international consultation for prayer and mission leaders to focus on how we can link the two movements more closely and thereby more effectively reach the unreached peoples of our world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Mission is a supernatural business; therefore, we need supernatural equipment to do it effectively.
The early church understood this and at the clear command of Jesus, they tarried at Jerusalem in constant, united prayer (Acts 1:14). They did this not only until the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, but all through the book of Acts and into the first centuries of the Church, so that they “turned the world upside down”.
This first tarrying experience in Jerusalem developed into a culture of prayer through which the Spirit facilitated and enabled every mission breakthrough. The glorious outpouring at Pentecost was followed rapidly by 3000 Jewish priests turning to the Lord and the Gentile mission of Peter, Paul and other apostles that took the Gospel to the limits of the then known world.
About 30 times in Acts alone, we observe breakthroughs of one kind or another happening after united prayer. The same pattern has occurred in church and mission history since then though not as often as we would have liked.
Revival and breakthroughs emerge from small groups praying and believing God together in the spirit of Matthew 18:18-20. There Jesus tells us that “whatever”, “anything” will be given when we come into agreement with Him and one another in united intercession.
The Moravians shared the same experience of the outpouring of Holy Spirit in 1727, and out of that erupted a more than 100-year prayer chain that sent out the first Protestant missionaries from their tiny village in SE Germany. Eventually they touched about 5000 locations on earth. Like the early church, they correctly perceived that mission is a supernatural endeavor and can only done effectively with dependence on God the Spirit through a culture of ongoing prayer.
Michael Lienau, an award-winning film maker was with us for the Herrnhut consultation and has now completed the superb video attached below for your use. You may play and download “The Spirit of the Moravians” from the attached link with the password ‘spirit’.
We hope you enjoy it and can share it widely with those in your prayer and/or church and mission networks so that it gets out around the world and can be used of the Lord to impact many.
Especially, we pray that the Lord will raise up churches, prayer groups and individuals who will feel called to adopt and pray for the remaining unreached peoples of our world and the fulfillment of His Great Commission among them.
Spirit of the Moravians 9-min
Spirit of the Moravians 3-min
As you see the video, please pray with us for the following:
1 That we ourselves will be instruments of mission and deliverance for one or more unreached people groups.
2 That God will use us to mobilize churches, prayer groups and individuals to adopt UPGs.
3 That all the 1347 unengaged UPGs on the current list (seewww.finishingthetask.com) will be adopted for prayer and mission efforts by 2025. Pray for adults, youth and children to hear His call and get involved in reaching a UPG.
“Ask of me and I will make the peoples your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2:8) Would you prayerfully help make sure that each of the remaining UPGs have someone- preferably a corporate body- church, prayer group or organization- that can adopt and pray for them until they are reached?
John D Robb – Chairman
IPC Connect
Click here to access the video (password 'spirit'): https://vimeo.com/244739881
NATIONAL SECURITY FOREIGN AFFAIRS UPDATE
OCTOBER 23, 2017 (REPORT #51)
Highlights:
- Cold War returns with nuclear-armed bombers on 24-hour alert
- CIA expands Taliban hunt
- ISIS battle converges in the Euphrates Valley
- Iraqi, Kurdish forces exchange fire at shared border
- U.S. Forces Korea ready with THAAD
- Russia complains U.S.-led coalition destroyed Raqqa like allies did the German city of Dresden in World War Two
- U.S. SEC State calls on Iran-backed militia to go home
- Iraq’s PM rejects Tillerson’s call for PMU to “go home”
CURRENT
- Cold War Returns with Nuclear-Armed Bombers on 24-hour alert. DefenseOne reports the U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers on 24-hour ready alert, something not seen since the end of the Cold War. “This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said. “I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we’re prepared going forward.” Putting the bomber fleet on alert is just one of many decisions facing the Air Force as the U.S. military responds to changing geopolitical environment that includes North Korea’s rapidly advancing nuclear arsenal as well as Russia’s increasingly potent and active armed forces.
- CIA expands Taliban hunt. The New York Times reports the CIA is expanding its operations in Afghanistan, sending teams alongside Afghan forces to hunt Taliban jihadi. The Times reports this is a shift for the CIA in that country, where it had focused on defeating al Qaeda and helping Afghan intelligence operatives. The agency’s paramilitary division, which is taking on the mission, numbers only in the hundreds and is deployed all over the world. The expanded mission reflects that agency’s assertive role under Mike Pompeo, the new director, to combat insurgents around the world. Pompeo said “We can’t perform our mission if we’re not aggressive. … This is unforgiving, relentless. You pick the word. Every minute, we have to be focused on crushing our enemies.”
- ISIS battle converges in the Euphrates Valley. The Air Force Times reports the coalition’s fight with ISIS jihadi is now focused along a stretch of the Euphrates River Valley straddling the Syrian border. ISIS no longer has a presence in cities such as Mosul, Tal Afar and Haditha. Rather, U.S.-led coalition forces are focused on driving ISIS out of towns like al Qaim. Air operations are “shaping” the battlefield by taking out weapons centers like car bomb factories and ISIS C3 centers. Brig. Gen. Andrew Croft, deputy commanding general for Air, Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command, Operation Inherent Resolve, said “They’ll move against multiple areas in the Euphrates River Valley in a multi-axis operation. The preponderance of ISIS forces, we believe, are in that area … essentially all the way out east to Rawa.”
CONSEQUENCES
- Iraqi, Kurdish forces exchange fire at shared border. The Military Times reports Iraqi federal and Kurdish forces exchanged fire at their shared border on Friday, ending a week of conflict whereby Kurds returned control to Iraqi forces. By mid-Friday, Iraq’s defense ministry said anti-terrorism forces used artillery against Kurdish forces in AltunKupri, a town in the Kurdish region. Kurdish forces withdrew last week in most areas to positions they last held in 2014, restoring the map to the time before the rise of ISIS.
- U.S. Forces Korea ready with THAAD. The Yonhap News Agency reports the U.S. Forces Korea set-up the unit charged with operating the advanced missile defense system deployed in that country. On Thursday, a ceremony was held in Seongju to transfer the Delta Battery of the 11th Air Defense Artillery brigade to the 35th ADA Brigade in South Korea. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, which has missile launchers, command and control facilities and a powerful radar, was first deployed in April, but at that time there were only two interceptor launchers. Four more launchers arrived last month.
- Russia complains U.S.-led coalition destroyed Raqqa like allies did the German city of Dresden in World War Two. The BBC reports the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs, destroyed Raqqa, and Moscow compared that result to the Allied destruction of the German city of Dresden in WW II. Russia itself was accused of committing war crimes for bombarding Aleppo, Syria last year. UN war crimes investigators in June that there had been a “staggering loss of civilian life” in Raqqa. A Russian defense spokesman said “Raqqa has inherited the fate of Dresden in 1945, wiped off the face of the earth by Anglo-American bombardments.”
- U.S. SEC State calls on Iran-backed militia to go home. The BBC reports U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Iran-backed militias fighting ISIS should leave northern Iraq as the battle is nearing its end. Tillerson insists mopping up should be left to the Iraqis. Iraqi forces have been fighting ISIS alongside Popular Mobilization Units, a coalition of Shia militia, backed by Iran. Those units have been accused of abuses, including torture and killings, during the anti-ISIS operations in Iraq.
- Iraq’s PM rejects Tillerson’s call for PMU to “go home.”The media office of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 23 criticized U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent statements that Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units who helped Iraq fight the Islamic State should "go home," Reuters reported. According to Reuters, the prime minister's office said that "No party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters."
Pray – lets be in prayer over each of these very significant situations and pray as we are guided.
Robert Maginnis
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord. Is 54:17
In this edition of IPC Connections, we are once again highlighting the extremely volatile situation on the Korean Peninsula, that needs our prayers.
Last month, we prayed about the potential of military options, which could cause many deaths. There is still the danger of provocative actions which we continue to pray against. We also highlighted the significant relationship with China, who has the power and influence to broker a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Since then, an interview (reported here) with an academic with close relations to the Chinese government has warned that a war between China and North Korea was 'on the table'. Chong Sho-Hu, a professor from Renmin University, Beijing said that the relationship with North Korea was now worse than it had been with both the Soviet Union and Vietnam at the time of the wars with those countries in the past.
In his words: "North Korea is standing on the edge of a deep cliff, one light blow could push this country off the cliff." When asked whether this meant one more missile test could trigger war, the professor agreed.
Let's pray for continued peace and a 'breakthrough intervention' in the relationship between China and North Korea that will open the door for a U-turn and for positive de-nuclearization negotiations.
We also report in this edition on the real threat that the continued development of intercontinental ballistic rockets by North Korea's regime is creating. North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador called his country’s nuclear and missile arsenal “a precious strategic asset that cannot be reversed or bartered for anything.” A UK Daily Mail article also included in this month's edition quotes North Korean official's ambitions - both defensive and offensive capability that will hold the whole of the United States within it's range.
As I have been writing this, a notification has arrived of an un-confirmed tunnel collapse in September at the North Korean nuclear test site that resulted in 200 deaths of 100 workers and a further 100 rescuers who were killed in a second collapse. Whilst any loss of life is regrettable, there is no doubt that such an incident will have hampered the efforts of the regime in their attempts to develop these nuclear weapons. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-tunnel/tunnel-collapse-may-have-killed-200-after-north-korea-nuclear-test-japanese-broadcaster-idUSKBN1D018L?il=0
Pray on for the nuclear ambitions of North Korea to be thwarted. (Is 54:17) Let's also pray into the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and other United Nations efforts to restrict and reduce the development of nuclear arsenals globally.
Many Christians are suffering in North Korea for their faith. Choi Kwanghyuk (55) escaped a work camp where he was sent after being targeted and persecuted by the government for his Christian faith. Read about his harrowing experiences below.
Robert Park, a US prisoner of the Kim Jong-il regime from December 2009 to February 2010 estimates that there are up to 400,000 believers worshipping secretly in North Korea. He reminds us of the fact that thousands of the imprisoned Christians are in prison camps that are located close to military targets such as weapons facilities and test sites. Read Robert's moving plea for a workable and peaceable solution addressed to the Korean President below.
Pray on for those being persecuted, raped, beaten, tortured for their faith. (Matt 5:11-12). Pray for their release and an end to the oppression of believers of all faiths. Pray for a solution to the crisis that does not endanger lives, either side of the border.
On a more positive note, let’s be thankful for news of a growing Christian Church in North Korea, reported in this month's edition and for the innovative means being used to make the word of God available to them, through 'Bible Balloons containing text from the Bible or flash drives containing the whole Bible - Praise God!
Pray for the continuing efforts to encourage, equip and educate new believers in North Korea and for those who are taking great risks both in these efforts from South Korea and those who are nurturing God's people within North Korea. Pray for one, united Korea.
May God bless and encourage you all as you join us in praying both for Korea and these other important global matters.
In His service,
John Robb, IPC Chairman
Dear President Trump,
Thank you for taking the time to hear my plea for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
I was a US prisoner of the Kim Jong-il regime from December 2009 to February 2010. The sole reason why I entered North Korea via Hoeryung city on Dec. 25, 2009 was to call attention to human rights violations that have occurred against innocents in the region and to demand better conditions -- conducive to life -- for North Koreans.
On a personal level, I have been profoundly wounded and suffered loss on an incalculable and irretrievable scale as a result of these efforts to highlight the North Korean populace’s severe victimization and unjust suffering. Accordingly, I sincerely beg that whatever you decide to do in concert with South Korean authorities and the international community that none of the ordinary people of both North and South Korea will ever get hurt; Koreans have already endured and sacrificed far too much.
It’s been brought to my attention that persons who have advised you and are within your administration profess to be Christians. Please kindly be reminded that a large number of underground Christians are within North Korea. They are the most persecuted religious group in the world, according to multiple watchdogs of religious rights internationally. As I pray your team accepts upon deep reflection, it would be decidedly un-Christian to countenance indiscriminate killings of those who are among the people in the world who suffer the most.
As was recorded by a 2013 United Nations Commission of Inquiry, an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 “Christians still professing their religion secretly” despite “high risks” are in North Korea today.
Another ethical dilemma vis-a-vis military strikes would be that North Korea’s political prison camps -- where thousands of Christians are imprisoned and suffering grievously -- are near weapons of mass destruction facilities and test sites.
For instance, as was written in the above-cited UN report: “Political Prison Camp No. 16 covers about 560 square kilometres of rugged terrain in Myonggan, North Hamgyong Province. It is located in close proximity to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site. ... The GeoCoordinates for the central area of Camp 16 are 41.1849N 129.2032E.”
Furthermore, an estimated 10 million Korean families were heartbreakingly severed by the brutal realities engendered through Korea’s division. Fewer than 1 percent have been permitted to see or even hear from their missing or displaced loved ones to date. As the artificial border became fixed, whether Koreans discovered themselves in the North or the South amid the tumult and upheaval of the period was in innumerable cases but a question of chance.
The South’s President Moon Jae-in -- like a multitude of South Koreans, Korean-Americans and other Koreans worldwide -- has family in North Korea.
Therefore, it is my sincere and tearful prayer that you, Mr. President, would take into serious consideration these excruciatingly painful and unresolved tragedies, while honoring the moral imperative to determine a peaceful resolution vis-a-vis the security predicament.
We must remember Kim Jong-un disallows North Koreans all of the basic freedoms most of us take for granted. North Koreans of all classes and backgrounds are not permitted to read what they wish. Neither are they able to travel freely within their own territory. Going abroad is simply out of the question for the overwhelming majority. Punishments in retaliation for being caught with books such as the Bible, or accidentally speaking out of turn or appearing irreverent, for example, are draconian and routinely deadly. These are but a few of the reasons the whole area is often referred to as a single enormous prison.
High-level escapee Thae Yong-ho, who defected to the South last year with his immediate family, characterizes North Korea as a “gigantic slave society that exists only for the hereditary succession of the Kim family.” Although once among Kim Jong-un’s most entrusted -- having been Pyongyang’s diplomat in London for 10 years -- he bravely declared subsequent to escaping, “I am very determined to do everything possible to pull down the regime to save not only my family members but also the whole North Korean people from slavery.”
There are countless individuals -- even among North Korea’s elite and military -- who confidentially share Thae’s hunger and thirst for reform and transformation within the North today. I know this with certainty.
Here is my earnest, wholehearted and tearful plea to you, Mr. President: Please unconditionally preserve the lives of both North and South Korea’s general population. Under no circumstances -- if international laws, norms and principles professing to safeguard innocents’ most sacred right to life contain any substance -- can the loss of their lives be tolerated.
There is a thoroughly workable and peaceable solution to the North Korea crisis. It involves reaching out to the general populace of North Korea in sympathy and supporting their internal unseating of Kim Jong-un -- one individual. This procedure must be accompanied by the freeing of all political prisoners -- who are victims of crimes against humanity and possibly genocide -- which can be achieved via the mediation of those North Koreans who assume interim administrative responsibilities in the immediate aftermath of Kim’s indigenous and peaceful ouster.
Elite or senior-level defections are conspicuously rising. The South’s Ministry of Unification recently reported that this year, North Korean elites -- including party officials, diplomats, and university professors -- are defecting twice as often as in 2016. Numerous members of the North’s military have been defecting to the South as of late, as well. Countless more have died while attempting to flee.
In July, an elite-level family of five -- including a former North Korean party official, his wife, son and two daughters -- struggled courageously to defect to the South. They carried poison with them to kill themselves -- as an alternative to Kim Jong-un’s systematic cruelty -- if Chinese authorities forcibly repatriated them. Heartbreakingly, these refugees deserving of protection were apprehended en route. To avoid inhumanity and torture, all five members of this senior-level family committed suicide.
As Thae Yong-ho has emphasized, high-ranking North Koreans are in actual fact slaves and are suffering gravely also.
The overwhelming majority of North Koreans hope and yearn to be reunified with the South, to live in a gentler and more egalitarian society and to bid adieu to Kim Jong-un. Those who suggest otherwise, Mr. President, unfortunately retain an inaccurate assessment of the overall situation on the ground.
Accordingly, we must reach out to the North Korean people if a peaceable solution is veritably what we seek. The native and nonviolent ousting of Kim Jong-un is distinctly achievable.
I’ve been praying through an outpouring of tears and wholeheartedly plead for you and your administration to remember the acute suffering and unparalleled victimization of tens of millions of warm-hearted, gentle and benevolent North Koreans -- who deserve compassion and require grace -- and to please pursue a peaceable answer with regard to the security quandary.
Thank you once again for your time and attentiveness to the above concerns.
By Robert Park
Robert Park is a founding member of the nonpartisan Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea, minister, musician and former prisoner of conscience. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. -- Ed.
North Korean Choi Kwanghyuk is one of the lucky ones.
The 55-year-old managed to escape from the work camp where he was sent after being targeted and persecuted by the government for his Christian faith.
“We couldn’t raise our voice during a service, we couldn’t sing out loud during a worship … that was hard,” Choi told Fox News through a translator. “Also, we had to hide so that other people could not see us.”
Despite having to hide his faith in plain sight while living in North Hamgyong province, Choi was still compelled to bring religion to others when he started an underground church.
“There were about nine people,” he said. “I couldn’t do mission work because we had to keep it secret that we had a church.”
“If that information had leaked, we could have faced the death penalty.”
The 55-year-old managed to escape from the work camp where he was sent after being targeted and persecuted by the government for his Christian faith.
“We couldn’t raise our voice during a service, we couldn’t sing out loud during a worship … that was hard,” Choi told Fox News through a translator. “Also, we had to hide so that other people could not see us.”
Despite having to hide his faith in plain sight while living in North Hamgyong province, Choi was still compelled to bring religion to others when he started an underground church.
“There were about nine people,” he said. “I couldn’t do mission work because we had to keep it secret that we had a church.”
“If that information had leaked, we could have faced the death penalty.”
“I never heard the term ‘underground church’ until I got here [to the U.S.].”
In 2008, North Korean authorities caught up to Choi and arrested him. He was held in prison by the state security department where he says he was interrogated about his faith.
“I was tortured there,” he said. “I kept denying it.”
He said that he was about to be sent to one of North Korea’s brutal labor camps when he was able to break free.
“I decided to escape because I thought that once they sent me to the other camp, they could eventually send me to the concentration camp or kill me,” Choi recalled. “I was traveling back and forth between China and North Korea, but they kept searching for me, and I knew it could put my friends in danger too, so I left.”
The North Korean gulag system is notorious for harsh conditions and brutal treatment of its prisoners.
Choi feared being sent to the most notorious camp within the system -- Camp 22.Also known as Hoeryong concentration camp, and part of a large system of prison camps throughout the Communist dictatorship, Camp 22 is an 87-square-mile penal colony located in North Hamgyong province where most of the prisoners are people accused of criticizing the government.
Inmates, most of whom are serving life sentences, face harsh and often lethal conditions. According to the testimony of a former guard from Camp 22, prisoners live in bunkhouses with 100 people per room and some 30 percent show the markings of torture and beatings -- torn ears, gouged eyes and faces covered with scars.
“Unfortunately, it is inexplicably easy to wind up in one of these camps. While someone can be sent to one of these camps for openly evangelizing, someone can just as easily be sent there for simply being in contact with a religious person,” said King of the International Christian Concern.
Prisoners are forced to stand on their toes in tanks filled with water up to their noses for 24 hours, stripped and hanged upside-down while being beaten or given the infamous "pigeon torture” -- where both hands are chained to a wall at a height of 2 feet, forcing them to crouch for hours at a time.
Tiny rations of watery corn porridge leave inmates on the brink of starvation, and many hunt rats, snakes and frogs for protein. Some even take the drastic measure of searching through animal dung for undigested seeds to eat. Beatings are handed out daily for offenses as simple as not bowing down in respect to the guards fast enough. Prisoners are used as practice targets during martial arts training. Guards routinely rape female inmates.
Choi said he finally escaped to neighboring China. While he was figuring out where to go next, he had heard how the general image of North Korean defectors was not positive among those in South Korea.
“So, I applied for asylum in the U.S.,” he told Fox News.
Choi, who was single when he lived in North Korea, was granted asylum in the U.S. in 2013. He first lived in Dallas before eventually moving to Los Angeles where he now lives.
Choi said that as a result of injuries he received while being tortured, he is unable to work but has committed himself to telling the world about the human rights abuses in his native land.
“First of all, every human must have the right to freedom,” he said. “There is no freedom in North Korea. By law, they have the freedom of religion and the freedom of the press, but the reality is very different.”
And despite the hardships he may face, Choi said that life in the U.S. is a vast improvement.
“There is an enormous difference between my life in North Korea and my life in the U.S,” he said.
“The life in North Korea is hell … life in America is heaven.”
Source: Fox News - http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/10/25/north-korean-defector-describes-life-hell-for-christians.html
OPERATION BIBLE SMUGGLING: NORTH KOREA
Give thanks to Jesus for the growing Christian church in North Korea.
Pray: for the Bibles that are smuggled into North Korea to get into the hands, and hearts, of believers and seekers.
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thess 2:13)
On the nights when the winds are light and the skies are dark, hundreds of helium-filled balloons are sent up and away from multiple points in South Korea, destined a few miles away and into North Korea. Only these are no ordinary balloons — they are considered “Bible Balloons,” adorned with the Words of God printed in Korean or flash drives featuring the entire texts of the Testament.
It is one of the few creative — and inherently dangerous — ways Bibles are smuggled into the oppressive dictatorship in the hopes that impoverished North Koreans will know that they aren’t forgotten. Other activists, such as American pastor Eric Foley, have opted for a much larger hydrogen-fueled 40-foot balloon brimming with Bibles and testimonials. These are then dropped into rural areas with the help of GPS technology, in the hopes that even just one will be picked up.
Nonetheless, the regime is well aware of the biblical balloons — which have been at the center point of Bible smuggling since the 90’s — and if the endeavor to shoot them down fails, anyone spotted collecting the contents is immediately arrested….
Another smuggling method in is via the occasional — and lawbreaking — tourist. Although any visitors to the hermit kingdom are rigorously warned by external tour companies to take in absolutely no religious texts or symbols and refrain from any type of discussion on it that could be interpreted as proselytizing, some still take the risk. And pay the price.
Just ask Ohio native, Jeffrey Fowle. A devout Christian and father of three, the perpetually curious 58-year-old journeyed to North Korea on an organized tour in 2014, and was detained after deliberately concealing a Bible under a trash can in the men’s room of a Pyongyang nightclub. He had hoped the bootlegged Bible — which contained his name and family photographs — would make its way to someone in the underground Christian community.
Three years later, in May of this year, his release was finally secured by U.S officials.
Fowle is one of the lucky ones. Religious freedom is written into the country’s constitution, but the reality on the ground paints a much different picture. For the vast majority of trapped Christians inside the brutal dictatorship, the consequence is life in a labor camp or a public execution by firing squad. Their relatives too are often subject to callous retribution.
“The North Korean regime’s legitimacy and claim to power flow out of the idea that Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and now Kim Jong Un are divine beings. North Korean children are taught to pray before a meal, ‘Thank you Father Kim Il Sung for our food,’….
Furthermore, Christian North Korean defectors in the border areas of South Korea broadcast gospels on an almost daily basis. Roughly 20 percent of the 25 million North Korean population own a radio — an illicit item — and many will risk their own lives to tune in.
“Radio, just as in the days of the Cold War, remains an incredibly useful tool to inject truth and the Gospel into North Korea,” said Jeff King, president of advocacy group International Christian Concern. “And we remain an ardent supporter of pushing Christian content into North Korea through radio and other means.”
But despite the harsh penalties that come with praising anyone of any belief system outside the Kims, there is a sense that an ascending number of North Koreans are turning to Christianity.
“The church is growing at a faster rate in North Korea than in South Korea, where the church has declined in membership every year since 1991,” Foley observed….
According to the prominent pastor, the uptick in the North is mainly due to the covert network of North Korean Christians, rather than religious advocates from the outside.
“The reason why is that the work of missionaries on the North Korea/China border is easily infiltrated and neutralized by North Korean state security agents, but the work of underground North Korean Christians has continued faithfully for more than three generations,” he explained. “They don’t smuggle large numbers of Bibles into North Korea, but instead, certain members of the underground church carry Bibles across the border one at a time, often in the form of MP3 players.”
These Christians are native North Koreans who are given permission to travel to China on relative visas or work visas. Some have established relationships with border guards who accept bribe money — and are under close and careful surveillance themselves — who turn a blind-eye to the illegal material being brought back in, while others have it carefully concealed from all….
(Excerpted from Fox News , reporting by Hollie McKay.)
More: https://www.ifapray.org/blog/operation-bible-smuggling-how-christian-texts-infiltrate-north-korea/
- Pyongyang has warned that the 'entire US mainland is within our firing range'
- North Korean official threatened 'severe punishment' for US if it 'dares to invade'
- Country claims to be developing rocket capable of reaching the US East coast
North Korea has warned that nuclear war 'may break out any moment' amid claims it is developing a missile that can reach the East coast of the US.
Pyongyang said the 'entire US mainland is within our firing range' and threatened 'severe punishment' for America if it 'dares to invade out sacred territory'.
The chilling statement comes as a North Korean official claimed the secretive nation was building a rocket capable of travelling more than 6,000 miles.
The new missile would be capable of reaching 'all the way to the East coast' of the US, one of Kim Jong-un's officials claimed.
The official told CNN Pyongyang was not ruling out diplomacy, but that beforehand, 'we want to send a clear message that the DPRK has a reliable defensive and offensive capability to counter any aggression from the United States'.
It comes after North Korea's deputy UN ambassador warned yesterday that the situation on the Korean peninsula 'has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment.'
Kim In Ryong told the U.N. General Assembly's disarmament committee that North Korea is the only country in the world that has been subjected to 'such an extreme and direct nuclear threat' from the United States since the 1970s - and said the country has the right to possess nuclear weapons in self-defense.
He pointed to large-scale military exercises every year using 'nuclear assets' and said what is more dangerous is what he called a US plan to stage a 'secret operation aimed at the removal of our supreme leadership.'
This year, Kim said, North Korea completed its 'state nuclear force and thus became the full-fledged nuclear power which possesses the delivery means of various ranges, including the atomic bomb, H-bomb and intercontinental ballistic rockets.'
'The entire US mainland is within our firing range and if the US dares to invade our sacred territory even an inch it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe,' he warned.
Kim's speech follows escalating threats between North Korea and the United States, and increasingly tough UN sanctions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that his country is curtailing economic, scientific and other ties with North Korea in line with UN sanctions, and the European Union announced new sanctions on Pyongyang for developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the North Korean crisis 'will continue until the first bomb drops.'
His commitment to diplomacy came despite President Donald Trump's tweets several weeks ago that his chief envoy was 'wasting his time' trying to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he derisively referred to as 'Little Rocket Man.'
North Korea's deputy UN ambassador called his country's nuclear and missile arsenal 'a precious strategic asset that cannot be reversed or bartered for anything.'
'Unless the hostile policy and the nuclear threat of the US is thoroughly eradicated, we will never put our nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table under any circumstances,' Kim said.
He told the disarmament committee that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - North Korea's official name - had hoped for a nuclear-free world.
Instead, Kim said, all nuclear states are accelerating the modernisation of their weapons and 'reviving a nuclear arms race reminiscent of (the) Cold War era.'
He noted that the nuclear weapon states, including the United States, boycotted negotiations for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was approved in July by 122 countries at the United Nations.
'The DPRK consistently supports the total elimination of nuclear weapons and the efforts for denuclearisation of the entire world,' he said. But as long as the United States rejects the treaty and 'constantly threatens and blackmails the DPRK with nuclear weapons ... the DPRK is not in position to accede to the treaty.'
Source: Daily Mail UK - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4987806/North-Korea-warns-nuclear-war-break-moment.html
UNITED NATIONS — North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador warned Monday that the situation on the Korean peninsula “has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment.”
Kim In Ryong told the U.N. General Assembly’s disarmament committee that North Korea is the only country in the world that has been subjected to “such an extreme and direct nuclear threat” from the United States since the 1970s — and said the country has the right to possess nuclear weapons in self-defense.
He pointed to large-scale military exercises every year using “nuclear assets” and said what is more dangerous is what he called a U.S. plan to stage a “secret operation aimed at the removal of our supreme leadership.”
This year, Kim said, North Korea completed its “state nuclear force and thus became the full-fledged nuclear power which possesses the delivery means of various ranges, including the atomic bomb, H-bomb and intercontinental ballistic rockets.”
“The entire U.S. mainland is within our firing range and if the U.S. dares to invade our sacred territory even an inch it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe,” he warned.
Kim’s speech follows escalating threats between North Korea and the United States, and increasingly tough U.N. sanctions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that his country is curtailing economic, scientific and other ties with North Korea in line with U.N. sanctions, and the European Union announced new sanctions on Pyongyang for developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the North Korean crisis “will continue until the first bomb drops.” His commitment to diplomacy came despite President Donald Trump’s tweets several weeks ago that his chief envoy was “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he derisively referred to as “Little Rocket Man.”
North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador called his country’s nuclear and missile arsenal “a precious strategic asset that cannot be reversed or bartered for anything.”
“Unless the hostile policy and the nuclear threat of the U.S. is thoroughly eradicated, we will never put our nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table under any circumstances,” Kim said.
He told the disarmament committee that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — North Korea’s official name — had hoped for a nuclear-free world.
Instead, Kim said, all nuclear states are accelerating the modernization of their weapons and “reviving a nuclear arms race reminiscent of (the) Cold War era.” He noted that the nuclear weapon states, including the United States, boycotted negotiations for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was approved in July by 122 countries at the United Nations.
“The DPRK consistently supports the total elimination of nuclear weapons and the efforts for denuclearization of the entire world,” he said. But as long as the United States rejects the treaty and “constantly threatens and blackmails the DPRK with nuclear weapons ... the DPRK is not in position to accede to the treaty.”
Source: Washington Post -https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-says-a-nuclear-war-may-break-out-any-moment/2017/10/16/1b4e879e-b2c5-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?utm_term=.e55cb5ae5990&wpisrc=nl_az_most&wpmk=1